Happy 10 Years to US!!

A Romantic Dinner Cruise we took...I think all the boat besides us was a little tipsy. They would come around and say romantically with accents..."You want more...water??" Gratefully we made it back to shore safely. We had missed the bus from our hotel and ran for blocks trying to make the boat before it sailed. We paid for it with blisters the next day!

This was a really cool cenote. It is a giant hole in the ground filled with water. They just let you dive on in. There is actually large (like 6 to 12 inches) black fish swimming with you...NICE! You dove from the top ledges in. Needless to say, I am a bit of a chicken and so I didn't test my diving skills. I jumped from the sides, but Johnny enjoyed the large, very long fall and the fish nibling at his toes while I got to be the photographer.

Some ruins we went to see. VERY cool but our guide was SO long winded. Imagine...HOT HOT HOT weather, walking around looking at stones for like 3 HOURS while he wouldn't be quiet. He was determined to teach us every bit of history from how a pebble was formed to how these people created the city. Interesting the first hour...or maybe i just need to appreciate history more.

It was so beautiful! The water was the prettiest blue and the sand was perfect! I could have taken walks every night!! AMAZING!

Johnny and I have officially been married 10 YEARS! I can't believe how fast time goes by and how much it all seems just like we have always been together. I can't imagine life without him! I am one LUCKY girl. This year we celebrated without kids...a first for us! Our families were so wonderful to take the kids on so we could go vacationing together. As much as we thought they would miss us, they actually asked why we didn't stay longer!

We went to Cancun...The trip started out a little shaky because I had forgotten to sign my passport, then Johnny forgot to forge my name mailed it blank and it got sent back to me. The passport agency reassured me it would get to us in time but...THE LAST DAY before we were suppose to leave it still hadn't come. I went to pack up all the kids into the car to drive down to LA to some downtown agency that had to see me in a matter of minutes and just thought I would check our mail ONE LAST TIME to see if it arrived....IT DID! It had come from Alabama in two days SNAIL MAILED! It must have been all the prayers on our behalfs or at least my kids prayers to get a chance to stay with cousins and not mom and dad!! We had SO much fun! THANKS GUYS!!

Little Prayers

JY has always had the cutest little prayers. About a year ago at Christmas time he began blessing the Grinch and then that the Grinch would be nice. We always laugh about that one. Recently, he has really grown up and adds other little thoughtful comments. This week he always says...Help us to do EVERYTHING (with emphasis) you say. He is so sincere as he says it everytime. I just think kid prayers are the best and help me remember to be better.

JY Has Open House

JY waited all day to take us to his open house and show off all his projects. I can't believe it is his last year...how SAD!!! My little boy is growing up. They get a chance to show off all they have been learning. This year his theme was Nursery Rhymes. After a walk through the class they get to go outside and build boats...this is always a favorite part of the afternoon.

He was particularily proud of his Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree. Gib loves the movie and knows it by heart so JY felt pretty cool showing it off.

GIB'S FIRST ROLLER COASTER

Gib has finally grown tall enough to go on the toon town roller coaster and the "Maddy"horn (as we like to call it) at Disneyland. Last week I finally mustered up enough courage to take the 3 kids myself to Disneyland. We decided to head over to Toon town because we never really make it there. The older kids wanted to go on the roller coaster, but Gib wasn't so sure. After I convinced him that it wasn't that scary...he kept saying it was in line...he got on. HE LOVED IT! The next morning he woke up and ran into our room, jumped on Johnny and said "Dawd, I went on Mickey's roller coaster and it was TOTAWLLY AWESOME!" It was so cute. On Friday we had to show off his new love to Johnny and went back, but this time we also introduced him to the MADDY HORN. He is hooked!! Finally, a child that just might go on Tower of Terror with me!!!

More March Happenings

Maddy wins first place in the first grade for her science fair project!! She was so excited and couldn't wait to go and get her award. She did her project on HOW DO BABY DIAPERS WORK? I think that I had just as much fun doing the project as she did.
Here she is discovering the different parts of a diaper. Pretty ingenious little things...

Here she is testing out how much a diaper will hold...7 cups! I guess I don't have to really worry about changing Gibson as often as I thought.

Feb...part 2

Valentines!!1 Gib passing out Valentines to his little class of kids. He is really liking the whole treat part of this thing... JY was proud of his rocket ships we made for his class. It took us trips to many of stores in search of lifesaves packs...the kind that come in books at Christmas time. Nowhere to be found!! They still turned out great and we had fun making them.

Maddy came up with her own idea for a class Valentine. I searched the internet and had some great ideas for her. Both the kids came in to see what I had found...JY quickly settles on his and I am proud becasue, of course, it was one of my choices. Maddy gives me frown and tells me she doesn't like any of them and then continues to describe what she had is mind. She wanted to make little heart shaped purses that said 'I like your purse-onality" I have to admit, though it wasn't on my list of choices...they turned out cute. She was very VERY picky about what went inside, the ribbon, the colors, etc! What does this mean for my future!!??

More trouble boys get into on Saturday mornings outside with dad!

Feb....part 1

Maddy had her dance recital this month!! She did an awesome job and was so excited to get to perform in front of an audience. Gib and JY were excited to see her too. After they turned out the lights on her number Gib started shouting..."Bring Maddy back!! I want to watch Maddy!" JY had career day for school this month and since we weren't around for Halloween he decided to be an astronaut.

Finally we get to play in the rain with umbrellas. Even when there is nothing more than a sprinkle outside the kids BEG to drag out the umbrellas and play. They used to just take them into the shower and pretend a rainstorm was coming down on them. Needless to say, those umbrellas were VERY used out!

Gibson took his first "field trip" for mommy and me class to the fire station! He was so scared when he saw the firemen all dressed up. He came running right towards me and wanted nothing to do with them or squirting the hose, etc, etc, etc. Pretty funny!

One Saturday afternoon Johnny was working outside and heard Gib hollaring. He called me in to come and take a look and this is what I found....

January

Making up for lost time we headed up to Utah the day after Christmas to ring in the New Year with cousins and more cousins. We played in the SNOW, went sledding, went on an elk ride at Hardware Ranch with JY in a fancy PINK coat, got tatooed by uncle Johnny, lit fireworks at Grandpa and Grandma's house, went bowling, and did some fancy minature golfing.

December part 2

Maddy's first nutcracker. Of course...we had the matching outfits for her doll. She loved it and was in heaven. She now wants to be in ballet in a studio where she can be in the nutcracker and is in awe that Whit danced in it. She is always asking me to tell her about all the parts Whitney danced...Girls are so FUN!

Gibson being an "angel?" This may be a good blackmail photo in a few years!!

December....7 months later

The first year being "home" for Christmas. It was a little quieter than every other year I remember, but nice to have the entire morning to ourselves. I definitely need to come up with some great "JYF5 traditions to tie us over from missing the family events, but it was fun. Gibson was a terror to our nativity. I will have to add his picture in the next post, but he did nothing but try to take off Mary and Joseph's costumes. I think we summed the story up in 5 minutes or less on the account of the angel Gib making everyone cry.

At Thanksgiving time Becca and Whit brought down a fun Christmas box idea that all the girls put together. It was fun to have something that all of our families will be doing together. We wrapped up tiny boxes for each night of the holiday season. The kids got to open one each night to see what we would be doing...one night we got to film a family movie...this is JY's debut.

Another night we read snowman stories with grandma!! (She came to visit) then made snowman globes and treats!!

We also got to celebrate Gib's second birthday!

Ferry Highlights for the last...OH 7 MONTHS!!

Ok so I am LONG overdue on posting. I have been motivated after seeing a VERY cute family album of posts from a friends blog. I am backtracking OH LET'S SEE the last 7 months for the highlights. I know I will miss many, but hopefully remember a few...

NOVEMBER: Hooray for Thanksgiving, blessings and FAMILY!! We were so lucky to get Ferry cousins, uncles and aunts to join us in sunny CA!! Probably that way because this was the one occasion that we did not go to Disneyland. We get rained out every year!!

We had lots of good food and tons of fun! Some of the stops...
Visiting traveltown in honor of Gibson and Miles. A fun place to go and play on all the HUGE trains!

The BEACH!! We rented a surrey bike and pedaled the streets of Newport beach...that was until the chain broke and Johnny and the boys had to pedal us ALL back to the frozen banana stand!! ha ha!!

Dressing up like pilgrims and Indians was fun!!

Of course eating all the yummy food catches up with you!!